Around three months after an attack on a former synagogue in Upper Franconia, which was allegedly motivated by right-wing extremism, the suspect is still in custody. The police investigations have now been completed, said Klaus Ruhland, spokesman for the Munich public prosecutor’s office, on request.
It is now up to the Attorney General’s Office to decide how to proceed in the case. It is not yet possible to make a forecast as to when the investigation will be completed, Ruhland added.
A 21-year-old at the time of the crime is suspected of having damaged a window of the former Ermreuth synagogue near Neunkirchen am Brand (Forchheim district) on New Year’s Eve. Then he is said to have tried to ignite a firecracker and throw it through the smashed window to set the former Jewish house of worship on fire. On January 5 he was arrested.
Surveillance video and testimonies put investigators on his trail. According to current knowledge and because of the way the crime was carried out, an anti-Semitic crime with a right-wing extremist background is assumed, it said at the time of the arrest.
The Munich public prosecutor’s office has been conducting the investigation since January 10, because that’s where the central anti-Semitism commissioner of the Bavarian judiciary is based. After the Second World War, the synagogue, built in 1822, was initially transferred to the Raiffeisen cooperative and used as a warehouse. After renovation work, the former synagogue reopened in 1994 – as a meeting place and culture center including an exhibition.
Press release from the police and the public prosecutor’s office of January 10, 2023
